Kurzbeitrag

 
Bruno Seidlhofer

Born: September 5, 1905 – Vienna, Austria
Died: February 19, 1982 – Vienna, Austria

The Austrian pianist and a celebrated professor for piano, Bruno Seidlhofer, studied the organ, cembalo, piano, violoncello and composition with Franz Schmidt in Vienna, but he was also closely associated with the “Wiener Schule” around Arnold Schoenberg, especially with Alban Berg.

In 1938 Bruno Seidlhofer arranged J.S. Bach’s Kunst der Fuge (BWV 1080) for piano à quatre mains. From that year on, until 1980 (more than four decades), he taught the piano (and early on the organ) at the Wiener Musikakademie (now: Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Wien, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna). During part of this period, he also taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. In 1943 he was appointed Professor. From 1939 to 1951 he was the leader of the cembalo class there as well. Among his pupils were:
Carmen Graf-Adnet, Luna Alcalay, Martha Argerich, Raffi Armenian, Sorina Aust-Ioan, Geir Henning Braaten, Rudolf Buchbinder, Arnaldo Cohen, Jacqueline Divenyi, Cynthia Floyd, Nelson Freire, Hans Graf, Walter Groppenberger, Friedrich Gulda, Alexander Jenner, Jaques Klein, Anton Heiller, Karin Merle, Claudia Hoca, Daniel Pollack, Gerhard Rühm, Alphonse Sauer, Maria-Regina Seidlhofer and Lars Sellergren, Oliver Sörensen, Dieter Weber, Augusto Borromeo, Paul Badura Skoda, Verena Pfenninger, and many others.

Bruno Seidlhofer was invited to give master-classes at universities all around the world, e.g. in Brazil, Japan, Scandinavia, Italy. He acted as a jury member of the most important competitions, e.g. in Moscow, Geneva, Vienna and Warsaw. He got close friendship with Russian piano teacher Heinrich Neuhaus who was very touched by Seidlhofers Bach Interpretations in a way that he recommended it to all his students.

On his retirement, Bruno Seidlhofer went to live in Anger, a small town in Steiermark. He was married to Maria-Regina Seidlhofer, who acted as assistant in many of his master-classes. (His widow wasn’t Regina Seidlhofer, but Setsuko Tanaka – one of his japanese student. When they have married Bruno had been 72 and Setsuko, he called her „Zucki“ had been 27 years old; Remarked by Alphonse Sauer). At his death, many of his former pupils commemorated his life and work by subscribing to a fund for a new organ in the parish church of Anger, near which he is buried. In 2002 this organ was officially named the „Bruno Seidlhofer-Orgel“.

Heinrich Neuhaus

Der legendäre russische Pianist und Klavierpädagoge Heinrich Neuhaus hatte einen Sohn, der Stanislaus hieß und auch Pianist geworden ist. Heinrich Neuhaus hatte nie von ihm gesprochen. Wie kam es?

Dieses Porträt zeigt Stanislaus Neuhaus, einen Künstler von höchster Sensibilität.
Ich hatte das Glück gemeinsam mit Bruno Seidlhofer Stanislaus Neuhaus zufällig in einem China-Restaurant in der Wiener Burggasse treffen zu dürfen und das Mittagessen einzunehmen. Er war eine sehr liebenswürdige Persönlichkeit.

Alphonse Sauer